`Triumph Of Politics` Is A Triumph Of Hype

May 14, 1986|By Bob Greene

I had been holding onto this lovely, intoxicating fantasy:

David Stockman`s book would come out--the book for which his publisher paid a $2.3 million advance--and it would just sit on bookstore shelves all across the United States. No one would buy it. The publisher would be out the $2.3 million, and the American public would react with a yawn.

Alas, it was not to be. In its very first week of release, Stockman`s book went straight to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list--an almost unprecedented accomplishment--and now the betting is that it will stay there for a while. The book-buying public is snapping up the books as if they were Big Macs.

Now, some people have criticized the book because they do not like Stockman. They consider him to be a disloyal, backstabbing viper who, for money, turned viciously on his former colleagues in the Reagan administration. That`s not my reason for having wished his book failure. I don`t particularly care whom Stockman offends or doesn`t offend in the Reagan White House; that`s his problem.

My reason for having wished that his book went down the tubes is a simpler one. I am totally convinced that the American public has no real interest in the story of the budget-making process in official Washington. That`s what Stockman`s book is; it is called ``The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed,`` and it is about the making of the federal budget.

How many of you have stopped with your forks in mid-air during a dinner-table conversation and said: ``Hey, let`s talk about the national budget?``

How many of you have shared a couple of beers with friends and launched into a fierce argument about the administration`s budget plans?

How many of you have overheard the people in the seat in front of you on the bus engaged in deep, emotional conversation about the country`s budget?

None of you, that`s how many. Which is why I thought it was a sure bet that Stockman`s book would die on the shelves. Who among us would go out and deliberately purchase a book that was the inside story of a budget policy?

Sadly, many among us would. That`s what is happening even as you read this; people are purchasing Stockman`s book.

And what is the lesson here?

The lesson is that the great American publicity machine cannot fail. It never fails.

If you take an author and put him on enough talk shows, get interviews with him placed in the feature sections of enough newspapers, and arrange to have his photograph displayed on the covers of enough magazines, people will buy his book. It doesn`t matter if they don`t want to buy the book. It doesn`t matter if they have no interest in what the book is about. If the great American publicity machine decides that you will buy a book, then you will buy it. You have no choice.

The eminent social philosopher Dave Barry has noted that it no longer matters what is inside a book; all that matters is how well the book`s author does on television talk shows. And I`m beginning to believe that even that is an understatement. I don`t think it even particularly matters anymore how well the author does on the talk shows. What matters is the sum total of how many talk shows he is booked on. The sheer barrage of his electronic image is what sells the books.

The shame of this is that there are so many authors who will never benefit from the great American publicity machine. It may be that they are struggling first novelists; it may be that they have written about subjects which are not considered ``hot`` (although I cannot imagine many subjects less hot than the national budget); it may simply be that their publishers have given them tiny advances, and thus do not feel that the full thrust of the publicity machine is needed.

But I really thought that Stockman`s book was going to be the exception. I really thought--especially after Newsweek magazine ran two lengthy excerpts that demonstrated eloquently that there was absolutely no reason to buy the book--that Americans would not buy it.

I was wrong. Terribly wrong. But I still have a fallback position:

Hundreds of thousands of people will buy ``The Triumph of Politics.`` But none of them will read it.